The present invention relates generally to integrated supply chain, sales and marketing, and more particularly, to resolving demand and supply imbalances.
Effective supply chain management is becoming increasingly important to manufacturing enterprises, particularly with respect to commoditized products. In today's global economy, life cycles and prices related to commodities have dramatically declined over the last ten years. Further, the growth of e-commerce on the Internet creates additional pressures on this type of industry as traditional geographic barriers are broken down and new businesses/competitors are entering the market. To stay competitive, these market dynamics require commoditized businesses as well as other industries to develop and introduce new products faster and cheaper than the competition. To meet this challenge, new and enhanced business solutions are critical.
Business processes, associated criteria, and applicable tools are used to optimally condition demand based on current supply positions. Many factors can contribute to demand and supply imbalances, such as an increase in unforecasted demands, higher than expected supply capability, shifts in technology, customer wants and needs, or poorly selected price points. Advertising campaigns and improved sales forecasting are used in an effort to rectify such imbalances. However, advertising has been known to be ineffective or even backfire. Forecast accuracy is a perennial problem. It is also common for companies to rebalance demand and supply through pricing actions alone. From a macroeconomics perspective this may seem prudent. However, pricing actions fail to address the many factors that address the imbalance in demand and supply. The outcomes of unresolved demand and supply imbalances include lost revenue, high inventory, and decreased customer satisfaction.
What is needed, therefore, is a way to provide integrated demand planning, sales forecasting, inventory liability reduction, replenishment, process reengineering, sales operations, and other business processes related to integrated supply chain, sales and marketing management activities.